News

Roadshow: Corvette, Tesla owners nailed for having just one license plate

By Gary Richards grichards@mercurynews.com

Posted:
05/18/2014 12:01:00 AM PDT

Updated:
05/18/2014 09:44:21 AM PDT

Q Gary, you asked if anyone had been ticketed for not having a front license plate. My husband has a beautiful Corvette that I suspect he loves more than he loves me, and he was given a fix-it ticket on Silver Creek Valley Road in San Jose. No complaints, though, since he was probably speeding but not ticketed for that.

Susan Vandyke-Smith

San Jose

A The state issues about 3,000 tickets a year to drivers who do not have a front plate, as required. But Susan, I must hear from your husband. He cannot love his Corvette more than you!

Q I got several tickets in Berkeley when I did not have a front license plate on my Corvette. I finally got a front plate and had to have holes drilled in the front to attach it. Devastated me to mutilate the beautiful car.

Some owners of the Tesla Model S do not meet our state's requirement for a front license plate. (Jane Tyska/Staff)

K.V. Ravi

Atherton

A And ...

Q Hello, Mr. Roadshow and fellow Iowan. I can sadly confirm that Tesla owners also get ticketed for lack of a front plate. Scarcely a month after receiving my Model S, I returned to my car, parked on a mostly empty street in San Francisco on a Saturday, to discover a ticket for lack of a front plate. Meanwhile, my 12-plus-year-old SUV with one plate has never been ticketed.

Bill Sheppard

Los Altos

A From now on, I would only drive the SUV into San Francisco.

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Q I've driven Corvettes since 1988 before purchasing a Ferrari in 2012. Only once have I been ticketed for not having a front plate: while parked in San Francisco. But one day, my wife (an attractive brunette), driving the Ferrari with a friend (an attractive blonde), was pulled over by a highway patrolman in San Rafael. All it took to get out of the ticket was one simple question, spoken in the sweetest of voices: "Would you put a front license plate on this car?"

Ridge LaLonde

Carmel

A I bet that made him laugh and helped her avoid a ticket.

Q I was stopped on I-395 near Mammoth a couple of years ago for speeding at 83 mph in my extremely visible Millennium yellow 2002 Corvette convertible (hard not to speed in a Corvette on a largely empty freeway in largely empty lands).

The extremely nice officer told me, "I'm going to give you a ticket for a missing front license plate, and a warning for speed. Does that sound fair?"

"More than fair, officer," I replied.

The officer responded, "You have a beautiful car. We have deer. Please drive slower so it stays that way."

I drove off wondering if that missing front plate saved me from a speeding ticket. I now have a front plate -- and I drive the Corvette slower. I also like the CHP a lot more.

Larry Koepke

San Jose

A As you should.

Q I've been driving a 'Vette since 2001 with no front plate and have never been ticketed for it, nor was it even mentioned by either of the CHP officers who cited me for speeding. ... I bought my first Corvette in 1998 and no tickets so far for just having one plate.